Slow Burn

Decoder Ring | Weapons of Map Destruction

Most of us use GPS—the Global Positioning System—on a daily basis: to find our location when we’re driving, running, shopping, dating, and so much more. But GPS is even more important, and more vulnerable, than you think. In the last few years, GPS interference has been reported all over the world, from war zones to shipping routes to public squares. What was once the fanciful plot of a Bond movie [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow_Never_Dies]—bad guy manipulates GPS to start World War III—is increasingly plausible. How did the world come to rely so heavily on such an unreliable system? In this episode of Decoder Ring, host Willa Paskin talks to journalist Katherine Dunn [https://katherinedunn.me/], author of the new book Little Blue Dot: How GPS Shaped the Modern World [https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/little-blue-dot-9781639734313/]. You’ll learn how GPS works, why it was created, how it became so ubiquitous, and why it’s now under attack. You’ll also hear from Dr. Todd Humphreys [https://ae.utexas.edu/person/todd-e-humphreys/], an aerospace engineer who manipulated GPS to trick an $85 million superyacht into following his direction—for science, of course. This episode was written and produced by Max Freedman. It was edited by Willa Paskin and Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. Our intern is Phoebe Mulder. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com [DecoderRing@slate.com] or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281. Sources for This Episode  Burgess, Matt. “When a tanker vanishes, all the evidence points to Russia [https://www.wired.com/story/black-sea-ship-hacking-russia/],” WIRED, Sep. 21, 2017. Dunn, Katherine. Little Blue Dot: How GPS Shaped the Modern World [https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/little-blue-dot-9781639734313/], Bloomsbury Publishing, 2026. Dunn, Katherine. “How to Hack a Superyacht [https://thewalrus.ca/how-to-hack-a-superyacht/],” The Walrus, Jun. 13, 2026. Hopper, Nate. “The Thorny Problem of Keeping the Internet’s Time [https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-thorny-problem-of-keeping-the-internets-time],” The New Yorker, Sep. 30, 2022. Hopper, Nate. “The Timekeeper of Ukraine [https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2024/09/ukraine-timekeeper-kharkiv-clocks-standards/679923/],” The Atlantic, Sep. 21, 2024. Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ [https://slate.com/podcastfaqs#plusbenefits] at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Introducing First America: “Merciless Indian Savages”

Here at Slow Burn, we explore the events and people who shaped America as we know it today. As the country marks its 250th birthday this summer, we want to introduce you to the first installment of First America [https://lnk.to/FASlow], a great podcast series that explores a truly consequential moment from our nation’s past.  We have been told the American Revolution was fought over taxation and representation. First America reveals the real story of why the colonists rebelled, what kind of government they created, and how it led to America’s current political moment. Hosted by Rebecca Nagle, an Indigenous author and former host of Crooked Media’s This Land [https://crooked.com/podcast-series/this-land/] podcast, the series looks at the hunger for Indigenous land that fueled the American Revolution—and questions how an entire country missed the point of its own founding document. The show's first episode takes its title from the lesser-known last grievance in the Declaration of Independence. Listen to “Merciless Indian Savages,” from First America [https://lnk.to/FASlow]—and find the rest of the series wherever you get podcasts. Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ [https://slate.com/podcastfaqs#plusbenefits] at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Decoder Ring | We Are Monumentally Bad at Statues

It seems like the only time you hear about new statues these days is when something goes horribly wrong. Unfortunate bronze renditions of Lucille Ball, Cristiano Ronaldo, Dwayne Wade, and many others are always going viral, becoming a fixture of late-night shows and mocking comment sections. Is the internet too harsh a critic? Or is American statuary a total bust? In this episode of Decoder Ring, host Willa Paskin talks to artist Atalanta Arden-Miller [https://liap.eu/index.php/2017/06/26/atalanta-arden-miller/] about what’s happened to one of the oldest artistic traditions in the world—why so many contemporary statues turn out off-center, off-kilter, and off-putting. The answer takes us from ancient Greece to Nazi Germany to North Korea. This episode was written by Willa Paskin. It was produced by Max Freedman. It was edited by Josh Levin and Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. Our intern is Phoebe Mulder. Special thanks to the Works in Progress Podcast [https://www.worksinprogress.news/p/where-did-all-the-good-sculptors], where we first heard Atalanta talk about the dismal state of statuary today. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com [DecoderRing@slate.com] or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281. Get more of Decoder Ring with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of Decoder Ring and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Decoder Ring show page on Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decoder-ring/id1376577202] or Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/3vYNA0Ki5sUHnYC9QwQnKl]. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus [https://slate.com/podcast-plus?utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=plus_pod&utm_content=Decoder_Ring&utm_source=episode_summary] for access wherever you listen. Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ [https://slate.com/podcastfaqs#plusbenefits] at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Decoder Ring | Tina Turner and the Dance That Conquered Australia

In Australia, no wedding or school dance is complete without the Nutbush, Australia’s unofficial national dance. The Nutbush – a simple line dance to the song “Nutbush City Limits,” by Ike and Tina Turner – has become as stereotypically Australian as kangaroos, boomerangs, and Vegemite. And yet, hardly anyone outside of Australia even knows the Nutbush exists. Here at Decoder Ring, we certainly didn’t – until we started getting emails from Australians asking us to investigate its origins. How did an American song become the soundtrack for an Australian national tradition? Who invented the iconic steps, and why does every Australian know them? Our producer Max Freedman put on his dancing shoes to get some answers. The global, century-spanning story of the Nutbush involves Australia, Tennessee, Denmark, primary schools, gay discos, and demonstrates that even the goofiest cultural touchstones can go surprisingly deep. In this episode you’ll hear from culture journalists David Mack [https://slate.com/author/david-mack] and Angus Kidman [https://anguskidman.show/2023/08/13/tina-turner-how-australia-saved-her-career/]; Nutbush researchers Panizza Allmark and Jon Stratton [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10304312.2024.2391789]; dance historians Erica Okamura [https://www.swedishcastle.com/] and Richard Powers [https://www.richardpowers.com/]; Dr. Fiona Chatteur, Jeremy Santolin, and Brian Kerr. This episode was written and produced by Max Freedman and edited by Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com [DecoderRing@slate.com] or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281. Get more of Decoder Ring with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of Decoder Ring and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Decoder Ring show page on Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decoder-ring/id1376577202] or Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/3vYNA0Ki5sUHnYC9QwQnKl]. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus [https://slate.com/podcast-plus?utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=plus_pod&utm_content=Decoder_Ring&utm_source=episode_summary] for access wherever you listen. Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ [https://slate.com/podcastfaqs#plusbenefits] at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Becoming Justice Gorsuch | 3. A Lunch Room for Life

In our final episode, it’s time to talk about Neil Gorsuch and the future of SCOTUS. Host Susan Matthews enlists Slate’s jurisprudence team—Amicus co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern—to discuss Gorsuch’s key rulings to date, his unpredictability, and how this textualist will shape this court (and our country) for decades to come. Want more Slow Burn? Join Slate Plus to binge every episode of Becoming Justice Gorsuch—and every season of Slow Burn, including Becoming Justice Thomas [https://slate.com/podcasts/slow-burn/s8/becoming-justice-thomas]. You’ll also enjoy ad-free listening to all of your favorite Slate podcasts. Visit slate.com/slowburnplus [http://slate.com/slowburnplus] to get access wherever you listen. Season 11 of Slow Burn was written and reported by Susan Matthews. It was produced by Sophie Summergrad and Joel Meyer. It was edited by Mia Lobel, Hillary Frey, and Evan Chung. Original music by Hannis Brown. Merritt Jacob mixed this episode. Mia Lobel is the executive producer of Slate Podcasts. Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ [https://slate.com/podcastfaqs#plusbenefits] at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.